Die Moritat von Mackie Messer
by LyzabethSay
Summary: Two, seemingly, unrelated cases are brought together by only one common connection – a song and what happens when several more cases crop up bearing this one song? Inspired by the song ‘Mack the Knife’ and ‘Die Moritat von Mackie Messer’.
1. Beaches

**Die Moritat von Mackie Messer**

**Summery: **Mac, Stella and Flack are called out on a case that involves a dead man on a beach.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything I write down. That includes the characters of CSI: NY or the song 'Mack the Knife' or 'Die Moritat von Mackie Messer'.

**A/N: **Wow, I haven't written in a while so I hope this sounds up to par. This is probably going to turn into a mini-epic-fic (or at least I am hoping that) so there are lots more chapters to come. Sorry, if my summaries don't sound correct – I think I've lost my nack in writing them. Other wise I hope you enjoy my first full cast mini-epic-fic!

--

Mac left the coffee room to retire to his office. The rest of the team popped open coke cans to join Lindsay and Danny in a little celebration of her birthday. As a surprise Danny had bought her a very large vanilla icing cake which was to distributed amongst the rest of the CSIs after the long chorus of Happy Birthday and present giving. Mac had generously bought Lindsay a silver charm bracelet which, in actual fact, was picked out by Stella on behalf of Mac since he hadn't left his office for the past few days. But all in all she loved it and said it was too kind of a gesture from him.

As Mac pushed his office door open with the heel of his foot he entered carrying yet another set of case files and a plate heaped with white frosted cake. Dropping the files at the corner of his desk he landed himself on the couch by the door. Lifting the fork to his lips he could taste the cold, sweet cream.

Just as he begun to enjoy it the phone on his desk began to ring. Frustratingly, he got up brining along his cake and sat on the leather chair at his desk.

'Taylor,' he answered on the 3 ring. As he listened to the person on the other line he nodded his head occasionally and muttered a 'yes' or 'no' in between mouthfuls of cake. 'Alright, I'll get it to you as soon as I can,' Mac said as he hastily put down the phone in relief and took another bite of his cake. As he turned to his computer there came a soft rapping knock at the glass door.

Still facing his computer he motioned them to enter as he continued to type an email but as soon as he turned to face them he noticed that Stella was standing on the other side of his desk carrying what looked to be a dry cleaning bag.

'You know Mac, if you are planning on not leaving the office for a few days I'd bring extra shirts along with you,' she placed the dry cleaning bag along the empty side of his desk.

'Thanks, Stella. I really owe you,' he gave her an appreciative smile as he took another scoop of cake. 'Oh, and thanks for actually getting Lindsay's present for me. I've just been so tied up I haven had time to go out.'

'Mac, you haven't have time to go for a shower!' she came around to his side of the desk and half leaded against it. Reaching out she took off his tie and unbuttoned the collar of his shirt. 'You owe me - twice now!' she pointed out placing the tie down next to her on the desk. 'I got Lindsay's present and I brought you all those new shirts – which I had to go to your apartment for.' She stood up and took a small metal key out of her pants pocket and placed it on the desk in front of Mac, 'That's for your apartment.'

'That's yours incase of anything,' he sighed picking it back up and placed it into her hands.

'Are you sure Mac?' she stared into his eyes truthfully questioning him.

'Yes,' he simply replied back.

'Oh, alright!' she exclaimed standing up and walking to the front of his desk again. 'But I'm not doing any more errands for you again like picking up some new shirts,' she raised a finger and threateningly pointed it at him jokingly.

'I never expected you to, Stel,' he relax back in his chair, arms cross over this chest as she began to walk out.

From his office, Mac could see Flack dashing out of the lifts and towards him. Almost crashing into Stella on the way he grabs her and pulls her along the hall and back into Mac office.

'What's wrong, Flack?' Mac asked straightening up in his chair.

'We've just had a call from the coastal guards saying there has been a possible homicide on one of the beaches and they want a forensic team down there ASAP.'

'What do you mean by possible homicide?' Mac was standing from his chair and leaning over to a coat hanger behind him to grab a jacket.

'Well, they say it might have been suicide but from what I heard it's more likely homicide.'

As Mac grabbed his kit he turned back at Flack, 'Well, we better get down there then.'

--

Flack leaned against the black SUV under the hot blazing sun of the morning. He raised his hands and pushed his shades further up his nose before walking across the sandy pathway onto the beach. Treading along the thick sand he started to roll up his sleeves cursing the hot weather.

'What do you think?' Flack said joining Stella and Mac at the crime scene. Several lab techs were scattered around searching for any trace of evidence in a cornered off area of the beach surrounded by yellow 'Police Line – Do Not Cross' tape.

As Stella pulled out the camera from her bag Mac crouched down next to the victim. He was a young businessman, no older than 25, dressed formally in a suit and tie. The tie had been loosened around his neck and the top button of his collar undone and even from where Flack was standing he could see the bright purple markings around the vics neck. As Mac pulled out a miniature torch from his pocket he slowly opened the vics eyes and shone the light in.

'Well, he definitely was strangled. But I'm not sure with what. The marks seem to show something thick and it was definitely left there for a long time to cause that much bruising,' Mac pointed with the tip of the flash light at the thick purple mark.

'So, it wasn't some hanging gone wrong was it?' Flack questioned the CSI.

'Come on Flack,' Stella said walking over to him, 'A man that age? He's young, rich… quite handsome… and married.' Stella suddenly crouched down next to the body to examine the man's left hand. On his ring finger was a clean, shiny, golden ring which lay untouched.

'You're not becoming a necrophilia are you Stella? I mean with you getting that close and all?' Flack raised an eyebrow jokingly not just at Stella's 'handsome' comment but at her sudden attraction to the vics hand and fingers.

'No, it's just this ring seems brand new. I'm guessing there's one really lonely young widow out there now.' Stella stood back in order to take a few photos of the ring.

'Any ID on the vic?' Mac asked standing up again next to Flack.

'Well no wallet was found on him so it could me a robbery gone wrong. But then again he's still wearing the Rolex watch so it might not be. We did find his handphone though,' Flack fished around in his pocket and pulled out a plastic bag containing one small silver handphone.

'Did we get a number?'

'Not at the moment we're working on that.'

'We'll get it back to the lab and see what Adam can do about it.'

As Mac pulled out several evidence bags he started to fill them with small amounts of trace that lay over the vic's shirt.

'Do you hear that?' Stella said walking over to Flack. He turned his head around searching for a noise but couldn't find its source.

'There is something yeah,' he listened a little longer. 'Sounds like a handphone ringing.'

'I think it's coming from you're pocket,' Mac stood next to Flack turning his ear closer.

Sticking his hands deep into his pocket he pulled out his own handphone and then the vic's. The vic's handphone was glowing brightly with an unknown number on it.

'Interesting ring tone,' Stella commented. The song was jazz, almost blues, and very cheerful.

'Sounds like 'Mack the Knife',' Mac commented.

'Mac the who?' Flack raised an eyebrow back at him.

'Jazz song sung by Bobby Darin. We were playing at the club the other night… You've never heard of it?' Flack had a questionable look on his face as Mac explained. 'It's a good song Flack, download it.'

'Yeah, one day,' he said walking off.

In the distance Mac could see a tall, skinny man hobbling towards them. Sid was dressed in a blue ME's jacket and a fisherman's hat. He crouched under the yellow tape and dropped his ME's case next to the vic huffing.

'Short on staff, Sid?' Stella called out when he reached the body.

'You wouldn't believe the amount of cases there are today. People dropping out of the sky from nowhere!'

'Well, that's our job isn't it?' Stella said, 'To find who dropped them.'

Sid gave a weak smile back. Clipping his glasses onto his nose he crouched by the victim.

'Several secondary traumas, about the face, consistent with beating, rigor consistent with body position so this is you're primary crime scene. Initial estimate of TOD is around 1 am. Oh, and a small blood stain on his collar. Did you get that?' Sid pointed to a small patch of red on the victim.

Mac crouched down next to body and swiped the blood from the collar, 'Doesn't seem to be the vics. There is no source of the blood.'

'Must be your attacker's then,' Sid said.

--

**A/N: **So, hope you liked it and wait for more! Comment and tell me what you think or if I need to improve on anything (which I know I do so :D)


	2. Arson

**Die Moritat von Mackie Messer**

**Summery: **Danny, Lindsay, Hawkes and Angell over look a case of arson in a school.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything I write down. That includes the characters of CSI: NY or the song 'Mack the Knife' or 'Die Moritat von Mackie Messer'.

**A/N: **The second part of my upcoming mini-epic-fic (if anyone knows what this is REALLY called do tell me!)

--

Danny opened the driver's door of the SUV to come face to face with Detective Angell, 'How could you do this, Angell?'

'Do what?' Jessica Angell was walking towards the back of the SUV where Danny and Lindsay were taking out their kits.

'Calling Lindsay out like this on her birthday,' Danny shook his head in frustration as he pulled on a CSI jacket.

'Oh. I'm sorry about that Lindsay.'

'It's alright and don't listen to him, he's just over dramatic. What happened here?'

'Arson fire,' she pointed behind her at the entrance to SoHo Private Primary. The entrance was charred and windows were stained black. The fire had been contained so it hadn't spread to the neighboring buildings but the old cast iron gates were covered in soot. 'It started inside one of the room but wasn't noticed until a staff member walked by and smelt the smoke. Apparent the detectors weren't working.'

She paused and looked around at the other CSI SUV cars, 'Where's Mac? I thought he would have taken this case.'

'Nah, he's off to the beach with Stella.' Lindsay replied pulling on her CSI jacket.

'A date?' Angell raised an eyebrow at the CSIs.

'Well to Mac if it had a dead body then it would be,' Danny said smiling as Lindsay pushed him along.

They all entered through the black, cast iron gates and into the schools compound. As Lindsay looked around she saw a play set in the right corner of the front garden. There were a set of swings and a slide and in her mind she could just imagine it being a bright sunny day and children were enjoying their time on it. There were parents and staff lingering around the school ground being interviewed by several different police officers and detectives alike. Lindsay could see no children anywhere within reach.

'The fire was contained in a small room. It was originally a store room but was converted into a sort of mini library when they realized there was a lack of space. Sadly there were no windows and only the one door so no one knew there was anyone in there,' Angell trailed off on her explanation of the situation.

'So, did anyone get hurt?' Lindsay questioned as they walked up a flight of stairs.

Angell didn't answer until they reached the 2nd floor. The floors were burnt and the wallpaper was peeling off. The bright colours of the nursery were now covered in thick black soot. As they stepped over burn and brittle items they came to one last door at the end of the hallway. Carefully pushing the door open they could see the small 12 by 12 room covered in soot and ash. The floor was barely noticeable and anything that was once on a shelf had been torn down into a pile on the floor.

As Danny and Lindsay stepped in they suddenly saw why they were here. A body was leaning against a wall in the corner patched with pink and red burnt skin. His face was almost unrecognizable under the scale of peeling flesh. As they carefully continued to look around the room they suddenly came to it. A small pile of bodies clumped together in the far corner. A group of children had gone up in flames along with their teacher.

Lindsay took a sudden deep breath of air and turned back towards the door. Trying to focus away from the burn bodies of the innocent student, she swallowed a mouth full of her bile to stop her from throwing up. She closed her eyes tightly and tried to stop from crying as she turned back to see the crime scene.

'You alright, Lindsay?' Angell said placing a hand on her shoulder.

'Yeah, Yeah. I'm fine. I'm just a bit…' she paused trying to collect her emotions properly. '… I'm alright.' Lindsay took another deep breath and laid down her kit and opened it.

'You know if you can't take it in here you can always follow me. I'm going to interview some of the staff. I mean, I can understand if all of this is too much,' Angell looked down at Lindsay sympathetically.

'No, no. It's alright. I've got to do my job,' she took out her camera and started clicking away.

'Your victim was an elderly teacher named David James. The children were his students and there are seven of them.' Angell watched closely as she saw Lindsay shut her eyes tight once more and swallow hard. 'I'm just going to go collect the names of the students now.'

As Angell turned back at the door of the room and walk out she suddenly saw Hawkes.

'You're late, Doc,' she said.

'Sorry, just got here from Mac and Stella scene. I'm jumping from one case to another,' he raised his arm and used the sleeve of his jacket to wipe away droplets of sweat along his forehead.

'Wow, working on two cases. Enjoy!' Angell patted his back and walked out of the smoke and ash filled room.

'So, how's it going down by the beach?' Danny asked as Hawkes started to get her gear ready.

'Alright. They have a murder victim apparently strangled to death. No name, no ID or anything on him except a handphone which Adam is trying to get a number off of.'

'Sounds like fun,' Danny commented as he got back to work.

'Defiantly not as much as this one,' Hawkes pointed out as he gloved up.

'Does anyone hear that?' Lindsay suddenly said standing up from where she was crouching next to the vic.

'Yeah, sounds like a song,' Danny mentioned lifting his head to inspect the roof.

'Do you think anyone's playing an instrument?' Hawkes asked as he collected a small amount of white trace off the door way.

'No sounds like a handphone ringing,' she pulled out her handphone and inspected it. 'It's no mine.'

Danny and Hawkes both buried their hands in their pockets, 'Nether is it ours.' Hawkes said.

Lindsay crouched back down next to the vic and poked around at the debris. Finally pulling up a plank of something she found the source. A small black handphone must've fallen out of the vic pocket during the fire and undamaged it still received calls.

'Does it have a number?' Hawkes said.

'No, it says unknown…' Lindsay dropped it into an open evidence bag held by Danny. '…interesting Jazz ring tone, though,' she said before continuing her work.

--

'Ah, Mac,' Sid called from the other side of the autopsy room. 'I've just complete my preliminaries on your victim but sadly I haven't come up to any new conclusions. I have, however, found something interesting.'

As Mac arrived at the ME's table Sid shone a bright light at the victim's cheek. There, under the light, was a perfect purple contusion of a fist.

'Did we get anything off of it?' Mac asked.

'Well, a perfect shape for reference and judging by the size it was defiantly a man's. He was also wearing a wedding band and had a good left punch,' Sid handed Mac an enhanced photograph of the bruise. 'I found other similar markings on other parts of the victims face and several on his stomach. Who ever he was in a fight with gave him a really good beating.'

'Anything else you can give me, Sid?'

'Oh, yes. Blood alcohol level was way above average so I'm guessing you vic might have had one to many before attempting to stumble his way home and found him self at the beach. Now, you said all his pockets were emptied out save for a handphone so maybe it was a failed robbery attempt.'

'Well, as well as his handphone there was still a Rolex watch so it might and it might not. Have you identifies the body yet?'

'No, nothing in CODIS and I've sent the finger prints up to Stella so he's just a John Doe at the moment.'

'Thanks Sid.'

--

**A/N: **I know nothings really happened yet but I'm trying to build up the story slowly I guess. Anyway, hope I'm keeping you entertained! Comment please and look out for new chapters coming soon!


	3. Handphones

Die Moritat von Mackie Messer

**Die Moritat von Mackie Messer**

**Summery: **A little Adam and Sid on the vics.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything I write down. That includes the characters of CSI: NY or the song 'Mack the Knife' or 'Die Moritat von Mackie Messer'.

**A/N: **Wow, I think this chapter is the longest one so far. I've posted everything I've typed already so now you all have to wait till I type some more then I'll post.

--

Stella's shoes echoed along the glass hallway of the CSI Lab. Her white coat flapped behind her as she turned a corner and into the A/V room. Adam was sitting at desk with two handphone placed in front of him. They were both open from their cases with their microprocessor next to then as he examined it.

'Afternoon,' she said greeting him as she entered.

'Stella,' Adam answered pulling an iPod earphone out. 'You've come about the handphone haven't you?'

'How did you guess?' she said sarcastically shifting her eyes from him to the phones on the desk.

'Ah,' as Adam reached out to grab one of the handphone from the desk he paused checking the labels on both. 'This one,' he said grabbing the small silver phone.

Before handing it to Stella he paused, holing the phone tightly in his hands looking at her.

'Yes?' she asked with an arm extended outwards waiting to receive the phone.

'Didn't they ever teach you to dust for prints?' he asked.

'I did,' she answered back.

'Well, did they teach you to dust for prints all over?'

'How do you mean?'

'I mean the inside of the phone,' he grabbed a set of clear plastic sheets lying on his desk. 'Fingerprints from 'inside' the phone,' he said handing them to her.

'Oh,' she paused. 'Okay, don't tell Mac about that.'

'I won't,' he handed her the phone then opened up a document on his computer. 'Apparently you're vic liked to listen to jazz.' He played the same song that was used as the victim's ring tone. 'Mack the Knife was his caller ring tone but he had dozens of other songs from Frank Sinatra to Bobby Darin. He had good taste.'

Stella stopped Adam, 'Adam, I came about who owned this phone? I ran the finger prints I got off the cover of the phone and there were no hits in AFIS so please tell me you have his billing report.'

'I do. Your victim is one Timothy Scrippts. He didn't pay for his phone bills his company did-' he held up his hand to stop Stella from asking the most obvious question he could imagine, 'And yes, I did get the address of his firm.' Stella smiled down at Adam cheekily. 'Ezer and Timms.'

Adam handed her a paper lying on his desk, 'This confirms his association with them. So, now it's up to you and Flack to pay them a visit.'

'Good job!' she smiled at Adam as she continued reading the paper.

'Adam!' Danny burst through the glass doors of the A/V room.

'Ahh, yes and you,' Adam put together the other phone on the table and handed it to Danny. 'Now, unlike Stella here you actually did dust the inside for prints I noticed.'

'Yeah and I found two sets - both no hits.'

'Well, this might help. I did locate where the call came from. It was two blocks from the school.'

'Really?'

'Yeah I know, strange to call someone when you're so close. Oh and also it was a pay phone so I can't get any identify off of it,' Danny looked disappointed at the news, 'However, there was something interesting about your vics handphone.'

'What was that?'

'The ring tone.' Adam said.

'How's that interesting?'

'Jazz you said it was,' Danny nodded, 'well, believe it or not, it was the same ring tone Stella's vic had.'

'Really?' Stella put down the paper she was just reading.

'Yeah, I was laughing at the irony of it just now.' The two CSIs raised an eye brow at him. 'Err, the song. The character, Macheath, was a serial killer. His crimes are similar to both your victim's.'

'How?' Stella asked beginning to be more intrigued in what Adam had to say.

'Well, Macheath committed 5 crimes. I remember two of them were murders and one was arson but I cant remember the others now. I just thought murder, arson, the song. All connected.'

'Anything, distinguishing about the song or the crimes he commits?' Stella asked out of curiosity.

'Err, I can't really remember I haven't heard the original song for years but I do remember there were 7 children involved in the arson.' Adam shrugged off his own comment and began to think about the lyrics.

'So, wait, wait. You're telling me that some song states that 7 children got burnt in arson and some dude killed a guy and it sounds like something from the carnival ride.'

'Yeah, it's got a pretty happy tune.' Adam commented before humming the tune.

'Adam,' Stella snapped him out of it. 'I'm more interested in the fact that our two cases might be connected.'

'I don't know if they are and even if they were you can't hold this in court based on a ring tone.'

'Exactly, which is why you need to do a little bit of research for me to see what else you can find on this song and this guy's crimes before another one is committed.'

--

Lindsay and Angell sat opposite each other in the CSIs coffee room looking over the photographs from the scene they attended too that morning.

'We're doing a little reconstruction to find the origin on the fire and I think we're getting quite close,' Lindsay looked back the papers in front of her one last time. 'Hawkes is running trace on the powder he found but it nothings come up yet. Did you get anything?'

'I have a list of the students and I've talked to their parents. None of them stand out as targets for something like this so I think we can eliminate the idea of it being against one of the families. We're still running some background information on the teacher but nothing on him seems incriminating. I was talking to one of the other teachers and she was saying how their smoke detectors weren't just not working but had been stolen.'

'What?' Lindsay raised an eyebrow at Angell.

'Yeah, she even showed me. They weren't where they we meant to be. After talking with one of the techs I think they mentioned someone had come through a few days earlier to test them. We're running the companies name now and I guess we're just waiting for something to come up.'

They both sat silently for a moment sipping their coffees before Sid came bursting into the coffee room.

'I have you're autopsy results,' he said waving a file in front of Lindsay.

'And?' she motioned for him to carry on.

'Well, you're teacher, David James, suffered several blows to the head and other significant beating before being burnt to death.'

'Beating with what?' Angell asked sharing a look at the autopsy photos with Lindsay.

'Something blunt and circular. Lead piping maybe?'

'That was Ms. Marple, Sid. Professor Peach in the library with a lead piping,' Lindsay said still looking over Sid's notes.

'Well, here we have a Mr. David James in the library with a lead piping. Still works,' he said in denial as the girls pay little attention to him.

'Anything else?' Angell asked Sid.

'Nothing distinguishing and nothing yet on the children. I think they were left unharmed except for fire so they weren't hurt by our mystery arsonist.'

'Thanks Sid I think this is great for now,' Lindsay smiled at Sid as she watched him walk out of the coffee lounge and down the stairs to the ME's headquarters.

From the doors on the other side of the room Angell watched as Flack entered reading a file on his own case. Jumping up from her seat opposite Lindsay she carried a plate of Lindsay's birthday cake over to the wandering detective.

'How's you're case going?' she asked scooping up mouthful of cake.

'Fine,' he said not looking away from his file. 'Yours?'

'Great,' Angell was still standing in front of him swaying slightly trying to attract his attention to the plate of cake in her hands.

Finally looking up from his case file he saw the pile of creamy delight, 'Where'd you get that?' he asked referring to the cake.

'It's Lindsay's. It's her birthday today,' she said licking the cream off her lips.

Flack gave a big sigh of disappointment, 'and she didn't offer me any.'

'It's in the fridge waiting to be eaten,' she nodded her head to the communal refrigerator which sat in the corner of the coffee lounge. 'You can have some if you like.'

'Don't mind if I do,' he said preparing him self for the fridge but not in time for Stella to come rushing in through the doors behind him.

'Flack, I've got a name for our John Doe. Timothy Scrippts. Adam got us his office address –coming?' she indicated to the door trying to usher him out. 'Come on.' She tugged on his jacket before leaving alone.

Looking at Angell's cake one last time Flack took a deep sigh, 'Later.' He gave her an unhappy smile before dashing out of the lounge doors tailing after Stella.

--

**A/N: **Sorry, this chapter is a bit late I've been a bit busy with… other stuff XP Actually, if you are really interested in why this chapters a bit late visit my youtube site: (/user/LyzabethSay) I've been recently working on an Angell/Flack vid if you are interesting in watching that but there are two other CSI related vids too!


	4. Ezer & Timms

**Die Moritat von Mackie Messer**

**Summery: **Flack and Stella pay a visit to the vics work place.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything I write down. That includes the characters of CSI: NY or the song 'Mack the Knife' or 'Die Moritat von Mackie Messer'.

**A/N: **I haven't written in a while so this is all I have left of this series. I shall be writing when I get free time so do not fret my lovely readers!

--------

Flack and Stella walked through the tall glass doors of the main office. It was a busy lobby area with bustling people trying to get from one place to another. Businessmen in suits dashed from one end of the lobby to the next in attempt to reach their meeting on time. Secretary and admin staff carried piles of papers to offices so they could be stored and everywhere they looked everyone seemed too busy to tend to them.

Finally a tall, blond girl came out of the lifts and sat in the chair behind the front desk. She was chewing gum and her hair messily pushed into a bun.

'Hello,' Stella said as she walked up to her.

'Yeah,' she answered.

'I was wondering if you could point me in the direction of the Project Managerial sector,' Stella asked nicely but the girl behind the counter looked back at her as she picked up a pair of thick horn rimmed glasses and placed them on the bridge of her nose.

'24th floor. Lifts are to the left,' she looked down at her computer screen and began typing something in.

'Okay,' Stella said walking off disappointed at the lack of energy the clerk had.

As the lift doors pinged open a flood of people came pouring out and in the lobby. Flack and Stella were rudely pushed to the side of whilst hoards of people dispersed out along the shiny marble floor.

'It's hard to believe that a company so disorganized fitted in the new intranetworking system in the NYPD CID building,' Flack commented as they stood alone in the elevator.

'Really? These people set up that network?'

'Yeah, apparently top of their game when it comes to communication networking. They're getting all the new contracts for New York.'

Stella nodded her head impressed by the company's standards. The CID's intranetworking system was replaced several months ago after unresolved system failure lead to the loss of several back up drives.

As the doors pinged open again they exited the lifts into a quite and almost empty floor. There was one head desk facing the lifts with a pretty brunette sitting behind it typing casually into the computer. The moment she saw the two detectives, though, she shot up from her chair and greeted them.

'Hello, welcome to Ezer and Timms. How can I help you?' she had a bright white smile on her face but bit her bottom lips slightly out of nervousness. Her voice was quite and something in her tone suggested she was afraid of something.

'Hello, I'm Detective Bonesara and this is Detective Flack,' Stella said pulling the badge from her pocket and showed it to the receptionist. 'I was wondering,' she paused and took a photo out of the case file she was carrying, 'do you know this man?'

The receptionist took the photo in her hands and examined it carefully, 'Yeah, that's Timothy Scrippts he's an employee here.' She handed the photo back to Stella before asking, 'Why? What's happened to him?'

'He was murder early this morning,' Stella said slowly. The receptionist looked at her before shifting her eyes to the ground, 'I was wondering if we could speak with his boss or head of the department?'

The receptionist was in daze for a moment not listening to a sing word Stella was saying, 'What? Oh, yeah. Hold on.' She turned to her phone and as she was about to call an extension stopped. 'Um, Mr Timms isn't here today. He was Mr Scrippts' direct boss. I can hand you over to Mr Michael Lockwood; he's covering for Mr Timms.'

Stella nodded as the receptionist called an extension and talked quietly over the phone. Flack and Stella could hear from the other side of the desk that the conversation wasn't going well when they could hear shouting from the other line.

Finally, the receptionist put down the phone and looked back up at the detectives, 'He'll see you now.' She pointed to a set of hard wood double doors to her left before sitting down.

Flack left Stella and walked through the doors. Still standing in front of the receptionist's desk Stella leaned over, 'I was wondering if you could tell me a little about Mr Scrippts. We're compiling a background profile on him. Is there anything you could share with us?'

The receptionist sat down trying to collect her thoughts, 'There isn't really much I can say. I wasn't really that close to Tim. I mean I only did paperwork for him but I knew what was said in the coffee room.'

'What sort of stuff was that?' Stella asked.

'Well, he was really good at his job. I mean, everyone praised him for being so young and reaching such a high position.'

'So you think someone might have held a grudge against Mr. Scrippts which shows a motive for murder?'

'No, not really. I don't think anyone hated him to that extent.'

Stella nodded at the receptionist and collected the rest of her papers off the desk, 'Thanks that's a lot.'

Just as Stella was about to walk off the receptionist jumped to her feet and called her back, 'There is one thing though. I don't think it's related to your case or anything but since you're a detective maybe you can help me.'

'Why what's wrong?' Stella walked back to the receptionist's desk.

'I know you have to wait something like 48 hours before reporting a missing person but since you're here I thought maybe you could help me,' The receptionist paused. Stella could see she was quickly running through ways she could explain to Stella what she was about to say. 'My father, Christopher Timms, he didn't come home last night.'

Stella stopped the receptionist and asked, 'Wait, you mean the Timms that create this company?'

She merely nodded before continuing, 'I know this doesn't sound like something extreme but he always comes home. Ever since my mother died a few years ago he hasn't been the same. I came to live with him because he wouldn't leave the house but after a few months he got better and everything was fine. He got used to me living there so I didn't move out. I guess I got to know my dad's habits quite well and not coming home was something he would NEVER do.'

'So, you think something's happened to him?' Stella asked.

'Yes. I've tried calling his cell but it just rings and rings and I'm just scared something bad has happen to him.'

'Do you know if your father went out with anyone last night?'

'Yeah, he went out with a couple of collogues and I know Tim was with him as well. So the fact that something has happened to him makes me feel really scared.'

'Okay, I'll have a look and see what I can find. Do you have a photo I can have?'

The receptionist dug her hands into her purse and pulled out a small pocket photograph of her father, 'Please find him.'

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Flack stood at the other side of the room facing the back of Mr. Lockwood. He was tall, well built, mid or late 30s. He stood smoking a cigar with one hand in his pocket. His office was cold and Flack continued to wonder what the point of it was if Lockwood was going to keep his jacket on all day.

'Tim was a good man,' he said starring out of his window. There was a good view of Manhattan and its bustling traffic from where they stood. 'He worked hard, beat everyone else at their game and wanted more too.'

'What do you mean?' Flack asked taking notes in his little black book.

'Well,' Lockwood turned around and stubbed his cigar out in an ashtray on his desk, 'he was determined. You give him a project he'd make sure everything was perfect and he would make everyone redo everything if it wasn't.'

'Are you suggesting that's a motive for someone in your department to want to kill him?'

'No, of course not!' Lockwood shouted back at Flack. He took a seat in his big leather chair and began to twirl a pen in his fingers. 'No, Tim was loved. Bit ahead of his times but we made him make up for it.'

'What does that mean?' Flack tried to pick his words carefully drawing Lockwood deeper and deeper into the conversation.

'He loved old thing. He'd sit in his office listening to jazz. He dressed like he was 40 too but he was smart. Prodigy I think they called him. We used to dress him up younger and taking him to clubs. Not liked his wife liked it but then neither did ours.' Lockwood shrugged off the comment and Flak eyes dropped to the bruises on his knuckles.

'Where'd you get the scar above your eye?' he asked. 'Did you get into a little punch up with 'Tim' yesterday night?'

'What this?' he raised his hand and patted his area of raw skin. He flinched at the feeling. 'My wallet got stolen on the way home last night. Put up a hell of a fight to get it back but the bastard ran away.'

'You didn't think to report this?'

'Nah, there was nothing in the wallet except a couple 100 dollar bills. I don't take cards and crap out with me while I'm knocking a few back.'

'Who were you out with last night?'

'Couple of guys from work. Tim, Chris, Jack- the usual little she-bang that's got nothing better to do when we're off early.'

'Well, I'm going to need a list of your little 'she-bang' before I go.'

'Yeah, fine by me,' he reached into his draw and pulled out a writing pad and a pen. 'Anything else you want detective? DNA, fingerprints?'

'A confession if you want to make my life easy.'

Lockwood began to laugh loudly at the comment, 'Good one detective, nice. You would have gotten on well with Tim. He liked people like you.'

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**A/N: **Busy with school work and have recently had a strange addiction to making CIS NY videos on my YouTube account with I would love y'all to visit if you have a moment! Enjoy and I'll try and write some more when I have the time. Cheers all!


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